Wireless Institute of Australia updates

With the Department of Communications currently reviewing the Australian spectrum policy and management framework, the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) has made a submission to put across its point of view.

In a post on the WIA website, the institute says that its submission “highlights the public-benefit aspects of the amateur service and identifies key areas where amateur radio can provide further substantial community value. Additionally, the WIA submission argues for a clear delineation between policy development and policy implementation, strong community input into future spectrum policy development, and increased resources for the ACMA in relation to interference management and enforcement.”

The submission can be read here (PDF).

The WIA has also been in communication with the ACMA regarding the Amateur Licence Conditions Determination (LCD), which specifies amateur conditions such as licence grades, frequency bands, modes and maximum permitted powers. The LCD is due to expire under a sunset clause in October 2015 and needs to be ‘remade’.

The WIA has said that it sees the remaking process as an opportunity to “reduce the regulatory burden for both licensees and the ACMA, and to accommodate future developments in communications technologies and applications”.

The WIA’s letter to the ACMA can be read here (PDF).

The WIA has also released a draft Repeater and Beacon Policy, saying that it “attempts to strike a balance between the principals of good spectrum management, [the minimisation of cross-interference between repeaters] and the experimental nature of the amateur service and its inherent need for flexibility”.

The institute is asking for feedback on the policy by 1 November 2014, which can be submitted here.